As the Northwest bakes in a potentially historic heat wave, the region is also choking on thick smoke from wildfires

The Pacific Northwest is sitting under a massive heat dome and a horrible pall of thick smoke from raging wildfires in British Columbia and Washington.

You can see the grayish smoke clearly in the image above from the GOES-16 weather satellite. Make sure to click on it to view it full-sized. Also click on the thumbnail at right for a labeled version so you can get your geographic bearings.

Air quality across some localized parts of western Washington reached unhealthy levels for ev